sort field

One of the fields in a table whose values determine the order in which records appear within a view. A view examines sort fields according to a specified order, organizing records based on the values in the first sort field. When a view finds multiple records with the same value for the first sort field, the view sorts these records based on values in the next-level sort field.

For example, suppose Last Name is the first sort field and First Name is the second sort field. The view sorts records alphabetically according to the value in the Last Name field. When the view encounters two records with "Smith" as the value for Last Name, it uses the value in the First Name field to order these two records. See also sort order.